We really liked the Nokia 6700 Slide when we reviewed it earlier this week, and although it’s not the cheapest of handsets, it is very compact, neatly designed and a good all-rounder. The 5-Megapixel Carl Zeiss camera is one of the most notable features on the Nokia 6700 Slide, so we’ve been putting it through its paces. Read on to find out how we got on…

The camera on the Nokia 6700 Slide is activated by a shutter button on the side of the device. It’s easy to use, and can be pressed half way down to activate the autofocus – as with a traditional camera. There’s no protective lens cover to remember to open, although sliding the phone shut does automatically lock it – so you’ll need to unlock the handset before pressing the shutter.

In darker conditions, the autofocus on the Nokia 6700 Slide is just a little bit too slow for fast moving objects. We tried taking tens of photographs of a cat – and whatever we did, up to including bribing the cat with food – we simply couldn’t get it to sit still long enough to focus and get a decent snap. See below for an example.

Once out and about in the sunshine, the Nokia 6700 Slide came into its own, at least in terms of focusing. We found the camera quick to lock on, and it was easy to take snaps with very little delay. The results are also outstanding, especially for such a small mid-level device. Sure, there are camera phones with higher megapixel counts, but the sample shots show that it's possible to get photographs crammed with detail.

Check out our Nokia 6700 Slide review

We were also very impressed with the colour reproduction, with lovely vivid colours on offer from the Nokia 6700 Slide. Even in darker conditions, colours were reproduced accurately, although the flash can over compensate a little too much when up close. Sure, there's a little bit of digital noise when cropped 100 per cent, but the results are more than good enough for the odd day you've forgotten your camera.

There are also loads of different settings you can play with on the Nokia 6700 Slide, including Macro, Sport, Portrait, Landscape and Night, although whatever mode we tried, we still couldn't get the cat to stay still enough to get that elusive photograph! Overall though, the Nokia 6700 Slide proves a very capable handset when it comes to use as a camera. No doubt it that it's no Nokia N8 - few things are - but it's still impressive how far camera phones have progressed.

Check out our sample Nokia 6700 Slide photo gallery below:

Overall,